


Burgess and Burgess

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-14
Updated: 2013-10-14
Packaged: 2017-12-29 09:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1003701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Morpheus, recently freed from his imprisonment, has to go collect a couple of his lieutenants. Hints of potential blacksand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burgess and Burgess

**Author's Note:**

> De-anoning from this kinkmeme prompt:
> 
> http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/1511.html?thread=16871#cmt16871
> 
> Obviously I had to mess with the timelines a little bit, I'd appreciate it if you'd roll with it.

“Lucien. I was just about to come see you. Am I correct in thinking that now only Pitch Black and Sanderson Mansnoozie are unaccounted for?”

“Yes, sire. However, I was seeking you not to talk of those matters but to inform you that your sister is here.”

Morpheus casts his mind through the Dreaming. “So she is. Very well. I will make time to speak with her before continuing the restoration.”

In a flutter of black, he vanishes, reappearing before Death in the entrance hall. “Good evening sister. I trust you are well.”

She smiles incredulously at him. “Yes, I am well. But what about you? You seem remarkably unchanged, all things considering.”

“I have had a few days to recover already. I have retrieved some lost items and lost personages. The restoration proceeds steadily. Besides, we do not change.”

“We don’t change _easily_ ,” Death corrects, glancing around at the still-fragile structure of the palace. It looks as it has for centuries. “You’re really rebuilding it to look like it did before?”

“I see no reason why not to. Now, was your visit only to inquire after my health, or was there some other reason? I was about to leave to search for two lost denizens of the Dreaming when I heard that you had arrived.”

“I really came to see you because I was concerned. You know? Since we’re family. If you’re in so much of a hurry though, I’ll let you go. But we need to have a longer conversation soon. Human-timescale soon.” She turns to go, but before vanishing stops herself and looks back at Dream. “If you don’t mind my asking, which denizens are you looking for?”

“Pitch Black and Sanderson Mansnoozie. My lieutenants who have charge of the nightmares and dreams of children. I fear that the balance between them has been upset, and recently, but I will not be able to know for sure until I find them.”

Death smiles. “I can help you with that! I just saw Sandy recently. Mean chess player, and an awfully persuasive little guy, for all that he’s lost the ability to speak. He said he’d been looking for you, but he got stuck in Burgess, Pennsylvania for some reason.”

Morpheus allows himself a small sigh. “Burgess was the name of my captor. Humans simply do not realize the problems that arise when many things have one name…Regardless, I thank you, sister.”

“Don’t thank me! He knew all the loopholes. I think he just wanted to hang out, really.”

“I meant for telling me about Burgess. Farewell, then. And we will talk soon.”

***

Sanderson Mansnoozie is easy for Morpheus to find once he has Death’s lead to follow. He floats on his golden cloud above the rooftops, sending dreams to children as he has for centuries. When he catches sight of Morpheus, however, he severs the dream-strands and forms his sand into whips. Morpheus frowns and moves closer, and Sanderson allows the whips to dissolve, his eyes wide with surprise and a broad smile on his face. He flies over to Morpheus, creating a dream sand top hat for himself that he can doff to his king.

“Greetings, Sanderson Mansnoozie. I am glad to see that you are well, and I am glad to have found you. However, I must inquire as to why you were not in the Dreaming when I returned.”

Sandy looks indignant. _Couldn’t figure out how to do my job from there when you were gone. Had to leave. Had to look for you. Got stuck here. If I had stayed you’d be asking me why I hadn’t been doing my job. Problem either way. Things got strange. Lost my voice, don’t know why. Kept doing my duty._ Morpheus reads the signs of his creation easily, but it troubles him that he has lost his voice. Such deterioration should not have been allowed to happen.

“Indeed. I suppose it is for the best that you continued to create children’s dreams. I believe I will be able to restore your voice once you return to the dreaming with me.”

Sandy nods enthusiastically. _Let’s go._

“No, Sanderson. It is not only you I came to collect. I am also here for you counterpart, Pitch Black. Is he in this town as well?”

Sandy looks down at his feet, nodding.

“Is there going to be a problem with his retrieval?”

Sandy shrugs. _We’ve been…fighting._

Morpheus raises an eyebrow. “Curiously, that is not the situation I would have imagined developing between you two when left unsupervised.”

_Can  I explain when I can talk again?_ Sandy asks, beckoning for Morpheus to follow him.

In a few moments they are standing on a bare patch of earth just outside town. “This is where you last saw Pitch?” Morpheus asks, and Sandy nods. Morpheus bends down to place his hand on the ground and tilts one ear downward. “He might still be down there. I can’t tell. There are too many cooped up nightmares there as well for me to pick him out. Nightmares children should have had.” He gives Sandy a disapproving stare.

Sandy stares right back. _We didn’t know what to do. It’s not my fault I was stronger._

Morpheus doesn’t answer, but with a flourish wraps his cloak around himself and Sandy. When it resettles about him, they are standing in Pitch’s lair. Countless nightmares in the form of black horses gallop toward them, and Sandy forms his dreamsand whips again. “That won’t be necessary.” Morpheus fixes the creatures with a gleaming eye and they vanish. “That’s better.” Morpheus strides confidently down one of the many labyrinthine passageways, Sandy floating in his wake.

They find Pitch Black curled at the base of a brass globe, hair disheveled, bruised, his robe torn.

“How could this not have affected you?” Morpheus asks Sandy, gingerly turning Pitch over. “You two are linked! And you let him weaken—this is why you lost your voice, Sanderson. He lost power in his whole being, while your loss was localized. After all this time—you should have known better!”

_You told us to keep apart! That was the last order you gave us in person!_

Morpheus is about to answer when Pitch opens his eyes. When he recognizes his king, he tries to sit up, but Dream motions for him to lie still. “I’m here to take you back to the Dreaming, Pitch Black. You will be restored to your proper place—with Sanderson.” Pitch startles, and looks around wildly before fixing his gaze on Sandy.

“Thank you, my king, but—he’s been my mortal enemy for years—and I thought that’s how you intended it.”

_I’m sure he’s got a good explanation,_ Sandy signs to Pitch, smirking at him from where Morpheus can’t see him.

Pitch’s expression grows calm, and even puzzled. This is how Sandy acted around him before that last order seventy years ago. He looks back to Morpheus, who is frowning.

“I ordered you to stay away from each other not because I wanted you to work against each other, but because I thought that the way you had begun to interact would be damaging to the balance between you. I thought you were not making your own decisions, but that you had been influenced by my brothersister in order to inconvenience me. That does not appear to have been the reality of the situation. Now. Let us return to the Dreaming. You both need to heal, and I may need to…review…some of my other orders.”

_First one to hear him say “I was wrong” gets bragging rights till the end of time,_ Sandy signs, quickly dissolving the dreamsand before Morpheus turns around.

“You’re on,” Pitch whispers back as they fall in behind Morpheus to follow him back to the Dreaming.


End file.
